The amount of water is fixed and pa.s.ses in an endless round from cloud to river or land and back to the clouds again. The average yearly rainfall of the United States is estimated at thirty inches, about forty inches in the eastern half, an average of eighteen inches in the western part, and in many places not more than ten or twelve inches. One inch of rain would amount to nearly one hundred and one tons per acre, or on a roof twenty feet long by twenty feet wide, one inch of rain would be two hundred and fifty gallons. With a rainfall of forty inches, this would amount to 10,000 gallons in a year, or an average, over every bit of land twenty feet square, of twenty-seven gallons for every day in the year. This is about the quant.i.ty that falls in the eastern part of the United States.
It varies slightly from year to year, but there is no more--there is no possible way of adding to it, though we may lessen it by allowing it to rush out to sea, giving no service to the land. As the land waters diminish the rainfall also grows less.
This two hundred trillions cubic feet of water which falls on our land every year const.i.tutes our entire water resource, is the source of all our rivers and streams, of the moisture in the air, of our rains and snows, and our water for plant and animal growth.
To understand how much this is, we may say that it is about equal to ten times the amount of water that flows through the Mississippi River system. The water of the Mississippi and its branches is nearly half of all the water in the United States that flows through waterways to the sea. This water that flows through our streams is sometimes called the run-off. The run-off is increasing every year as we cut our forests and cultivate our land. It is used for navigation, irrigation and power, but the increase is not an advantage for these purposes as might be supposed, because it comes in disastrous floods, tearing away dams, ruining power sites, and not only preventing navigation during the flood season, but by filling up the rivers and changing the channels, making navigation difficult and dangerous throughout the year. The run-off is controlled to some extent and may be brought under almost as complete control as may be desired.
As much as the water of five or six Mississippis, or a little more than half of our supply, is evaporated to moisten and temper the air, to fall as rain or snow, or to form dews. This is sometimes called the fly-off, and except for some changes caused by management of the land, is entirely beyond control.
A part of the remainder sinks into the soil below the surface. A large portion of this helps to cause the slow rock-decay that forms the soil, and which is known as ground water. It is estimated that within the first hundred feet below the surface of the earth there is a quant.i.ty of water that has seeped down; and that would form, if it were collected, a vast reservoir sixteen or seventeen feet in depth spreading over all the 3,000,000 square miles of the area of our country. This is equal to about seven years" rainfall and is a very important part of our water resources. In many places it forms into underground streams or lakes. It feeds all the springs and many of the lakes. Our wells are dug or drilled into this underground water system. It carries away the excess of salts and mineral matter from the soil, the trees strike their roots deep into the earth and draw from it, and last and most important of all, that which sinks immediately below the surface supplies all our plant growth. So that it is this last portion, that which sinks below the ground, and which is sometimes termed the cut-off, amounting to about one-tenth of all our water resource, or about the quant.i.ty that flows through the Mississippi River system, that forms the really important part.
On this depends all that makes a land habitable, the water for drinking purposes and for plant and animal growth. On it depends the rate of production of every acre of farm and forest land and the life of every animal. Every full-grown man of one hundred and fifty pounds takes into his system not less than a ton of water each year, and every bushel of corn requires for its making fifteen or twenty tons of water.
Of the importance of this Professor Chamberlain says: "The key to the problem of soil conservation lies in due control of the water that falls on every acre. This water is an a.s.set of great value. It should be counted by every land owner as a possible value, saved if turned where it will do good, lost if permitted to run away, doubly lost if it also carries away the soil and does destructive work below."
The uses of rainfall are given thus:
A due portion should go through the soil to its bottom to promote rock decay. Some of it should go into the underdrainage to carry away harmful matter, another portion goes up to the surface carrying solutions needed by the plants. A portion goes into the plants to nourish them, and still another part runs off the surface, carrying away the worn-out parts of the soil.
Crops can use to advantage all the rain that falls during the growing season; and in most cases crops are all the better for all the water that can be carried over from the winter. There are many local exceptions, but in general crops are best when the soil can be made to absorb as much of the rainfall and snowfall as possible. This also causes the least possible amount of wash from the land.
Doctor N. J. McGee says: "Scarcely anywhere in the United States is the rainfall excessive, that is, greater than is needed by growing plants, living animals and men. Nearly everywhere it falls below this standard.
In the western part the average rainfall is only about eighteen inches; in the extreme eastern part the fall averages forty-eight inches. In the western part much of the land is unable to produce crops at all except when artificially watered. The eastern part might produce more abundant crops, develop greater industries and support a larger population with a rainfall of sixty inches than it is able to do with a rainfall of forty-eight inches." As may readily be seen, the fly-off can be controlled only in a very small degree, by conserving the moisture that is in the soil, and so preventing it from evaporating too rapidly.
The cut-off can be controlled to a considerable extent through forestry and scientific farming and it is very important that the supply should be as carefully conserved as possible.
But it is in the run-off that the great waste of water occurs, and also that great saving is possible. It has been found by careful estimate that from eighty-five per cent. to ninety-five per cent. of the water that flows to the sea is wasted in freshets or destructive floods.
We are not accustomed to think of the water as wasted, since it seems beyond our control, but as we are taking a careful account of stock, and seeing how our forests, our fuels and our minerals are disappearing, and our soil being carried out to sea by the rushing waters, it is well to consider, also, whether this great resource may not be so used as to benefit mankind in many ways and at the same time lessen the drain on other resources.
The water of streams may be divided as to use into four great cla.s.ses.
The most important is that used by cities for general supply, for household and drinking purposes; next, that which is used for navigation and the running of boats to carry commerce; third, that which is used for artificial watering or irrigation, and lastly, that which is used for power in manufacturing.
In the past, when water has been used it has seldom been employed for more than one of these purposes, but as we come to understand more the nature, value and possibilities of this great resource, we shall learn to make the money spent for one of these lines of activity supply several other needs.
As we study each of these separately we shall see this interrelation among them.
The cities of the United States have expended $250,000,000 in waterworks and nearly as much more in land for reservoirs, and for ca.n.a.ls for conveying the water from these reservoirs to the cities. The better managed systems protect the drained lands from erosion by planting forests or gra.s.s and the water is completely controlled, so that all the water, even the storm overflow, is saved. There is very little waste in these city water systems until it comes to the consumer, where, except when it is sold through meters, the waste is often great.
The failure to provide the greatest good lies in the fact that the water systems have been used for water supply only and have not been made profitable in other ways. The drainage basins should be heavily planted with trees, which will in time yield a large return, or with hay, which can be marketed each year. Whenever possible, the ca.n.a.ls carrying the water supply should also be used to furnish power.
The city of Los Angeles, when it had a population of only 150,000, undertook to provide pure water from a point two hundred and fifty miles distant. To do so it must take on itself a debt of $23,000,000, a large sum for a city ten times its size. Yet the people were ready to a.s.sume this great burden to insure an unending supply of pure water, for they realized that without it their city could not continue to grow. It was not until the plans for piping water to the city were almost completed that the value of the water-power along the route was realized. It has been disposed of at a rate that pays ten per cent. interest on the debt each year, and has made what seemed a dangerous risk, a profitable business arrangement. All these other uses of water which are profitable, help to lower the price of water to the users.
The matter of supreme importance in the water supply, however, is not whether the water is cheap, but whether it is pure. If refuse from factories is allowed to drain into a stream, the water becomes loaded with poisonous chemicals, acids, or minerals. If city sewage or barn-yards are allowed to drain into it, the germs of typhoid and other fevers enter the water supply. To insure the purity of water supply from a stream, no factory waste, city sewage or country refuse should be allowed to enter any part of the stream. In addition to this it should be carefully filtered.
The disposal of waste is a serious problem, and the easiest way is to divert it into the nearest water course and trust to the old maxim, "Running water purifies itself."
This, while true as a general fact, has so many exceptions that it is not safe to trust to it. The Sanitary District Ca.n.a.l of Chicago has proved positively that even the most heavily germ-laden water becomes pure by running many miles at a regulated speed through the open country, but the conditions are altogether different from those of an ordinary river. First, in a river, sewage may enter at any point down-stream to add to the germs already present in the water, while nothing is allowed to enter the Drainage Ca.n.a.l after it leaves the city.
Second, some germs live for several days and may be carried many miles.
Only a microscopic test can prove whether water contains such germs.
Usually such tests are not made and water is used without people knowing whether it is pure or not, but the water of the Sanitary Ca.n.a.l is tested at many points to determine its purity. Each hour and each mile of its journey it grows purer. This proves that although running water does purify itself, a stream that is drained into all along its course is not a fit source of water supply.
Factory refuse, instead of being allowed to pollute the waters, should be turned to good use by extracting the chemicals, which form valuable by-products. All farm waste should be taken to a remote part of the farm, placed in an open shed or vat with cement floor and screened from flies to form a compost heap for fertilizers for the farm. This will amply repay the extra trouble and expense by increasing the farm crops.
The sooner such refuse, especially manure, is returned to the land, the more valuable it is as a fertilizer.
In cities the sewage should be disposed of in such a way as to yield a profit to the city, and also promote the health of the people. The sewage of a city of 100,000 people is supposed to be worth, in Germany, about $900,000 a year for fertilizer on account of the phosphorus it contains. The city of Berlin operates large sewage farms, using as laborers men condemned to the workhouse. The expense for land and sewer system was $13,000,000, but it pays for the money invested, with $60,000 yearly profit over all expenses.
On the other hand the cost of impure water to the city of Pittsburg was reckoned at $3,850,000, and in the city of Albany, New York, the annual loss was estimated at $475,000.
In the early settlement of our country all towns were built on streams, and the ones which grew and flourished were all on rivers large enough to carry commerce by boat. After the invention of steamboats, daily packet lines were run on all the princ.i.p.al rivers.
Albert Gallatin planned a complete system of improved waterways, including many ca.n.a.ls, that was intended to establish a great commercial route. Many ca.n.a.ls were built and put into actual operation and dozens of others had been planned, when the building of railways began. This new system of transportation at once became popular. Not only were no more ca.n.a.ls dug and no more steamboat lines built, but many of those actually in operation were abandoned.
In order to encourage railroad building and develop new regions, the government has given land and money to the extent of hundreds of millions of dollars, until now the railroads form one-seventh of all our national wealth, having 228,000 miles of tracks and earning $2,500,000,000 each year, while the waterways owned by the government have fallen into disuse.
Within the last four or five years another change has come about in the general att.i.tude toward the waterways. At the time that the crops are moved in the fall, and when coal is needed for the winter supply, there are not nearly enough cars in the country to handle the volume of business, neither are there enough locomotives to move the necessary cars, nor tracks, nor stations. In short, the railways are entirely unable to handle the vast products of the country during the busiest seasons. Many persons in the West have suffered for fuel, and commerce has been greatly checked by the shortage; and the situation is growing worse each year as production increases.
James J. Hill estimates that the cost of equipping the railroads to carry the commerce of the country would be from five to eight billion dollars. This means a heavy tax on iron and coal and timber as well as on the labor resources of the country, and it would then be only a question of time until still further extensions were needed.
With these facts in view, interest in the waterways of the country has been revived.
It is estimated that it will require five hundred million dollars, or fifty million dollars a year for ten years completely to improve the waterways of the country. This is not more than one-tenth of what would be needed to equip the railroads. The cost of carrying freight by rail is from four to five times that of carrying it by water.
Much of the heavy freight of the country,--coal, iron, grain and lumber,--should be carried in this way, in order to reduce freight rates and so, indirectly, the cost to the people, and further to relieve the burden on the railways.
The railways, it might be added, would still have a large and increasing package-freight business, besides the handling of heavy freight in parts of the country where there are no navigable rivers.
For these reasons it would seem clearly the only wise policy to adopt a general plan for waterway improvement and carry it into effect at once.
But there are many things to be considered.
Millions of dollars (in all about five hundred and fifty-two millions) have been spent for the improvement of waterways. Some of it has resulted in great gain, but a large part of it has been wasted through lack of an organized plan. Work has been begun and not enough money appropriated to finish it. In the course of a few years much of the value of the work is destroyed by the action of the current or by shifting sands, or if a stretch of river is finished in the most approved manner, often it is not used much, in some cases actually less after than before the work was begun, and these things have created a prejudice against waterway improvements.
The other reason is that in spite of the overcrowding of the railroads, the traffic on many of our large rivers is steadily growing less. The Inland Waterways Commission finds as a reason for the decrease, the relations existing between the railways and the waterways. A railway, they consider, has two cla.s.ses of advantages. First, those that come from natural conditions. A railroad line can be built in any direction to any part of the country except the extremely mountainous parts, while a river runs only in a single direction.
If a new region distant from a large water course is opened up, as is being done rapidly in the West through irrigation and dry farming, the people are entirely dependent on the railways to develop it, to bring them all the conveniences of the outside world, and to carry the products of their land to the market.
Branch lines and switches can be built to factories and warehouses, while boats can reach only those situated along the water-front.
Another advantage of the railroads is that they bill freight all the way through, and that freight is much more easily transferred from one road to another. It is much more difficult and expensive to load and reload freight from boats and barges on account of the high and low water stages of the river. This difference amounts to as much as sixty feet in the Ohio River at Cincinnati. Railways make faster time, and the distance between two points is usually shorter, though sometimes during the busy season of the railways the river freight reaches its destination much sooner.
The other cla.s.s of reasons relates to the railways themselves, which have always been in open compet.i.tion with the waterways, and to gain traffic for themselves, usually charge lower rates to those points to which boats also carry freight. In many cases they have bought the steamboat lines so that rates might be kept up, and then, unable to operate the two lines as cheaply as one, have abandoned the steamboat lines.
Another method by which the railroads have driven out the water traffic, is by charging extremely heavy rates for freight hauled a short distance to or from boats, making it quite as cheap as well as more convenient to send freight all the way by rail.
Lastly, railroad warehouses, terminals and machinery for handling freight are all much better than those of inland steamboat lines, except at some points on the Great Lakes where the traffic is very heavy.
Some of these disadvantages might be overcome by law. In France, where the waterways are managed better than in any other country, the law requires that railroad rates be twenty per cent. higher on all heavy freight than the rates on the same freight if carried by water, and in several countries railroad companies are not permitted to own or manage a steamboat line.